2019-03-04: A Packed Geocaching Road Trip from Texas to Minnesota and Back! Day 3 in NE, IA, and Arriving in Minneapolis!

What were we thinking! My Geocaching sidekick and navigator, CuteLittleFuzzyMonkey (CLFM) and I, both from Florida, now working and living in Texas, on a roadtrip in early March on the way to Minnesota in sub-freezing weather! Who's idea was this anyway? Oh yeah, it was my company's business training meetings I was driving to that we turned into a "fun" geocaching adventure! But it is so COLD!!

My back is feeling somewhat better. If you remember I twisted while reaching for a cache and pinched a nerve in my lower back. Between the Advil, stepping out into the cold, and returning to the heated seats of the GeoJeep, it's bearable.

Starting out at sunrise right here in Omaha, Nebraska, our first stop was at the Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium for a virtual geocache (GC7B6PE). Obviously they weren't open yet, but we got the needed logging requirements and continued on.

Not too far away and still in Omaha, we stopped by the Earthcache Sedimentary and Igneous Rocks (GC3VXN1). Located in the Spirit of Nebraska's Wilderness and Pioneer Courage Park, it consists of more than 120 individual bronze statues covering six city blocks. A pretty cool look of a wagon train making it's way through the rugged winter snow in Nebraska.

Before leaving town, we stopped to pick up Omaha's Easiest Multi-Cache (GC4PDC4). There wasn't anything special about this cache or anything interesting in it's location. But it did add another type of cache which bumped up my cache types for a single day from 4 to 5, as we finished with an earthcache, an event, a multi, a traditional, and a virtual cache.

Making our way into Iowa, we stopped at Karen's 71-20 T.B. Rest Stop (GC1DEYB). This was located in Early, IA which gives me Sac County. It's also in the Protestant Union Cemetery. There's only 21 graves here, all from the late 1800's. The town of Early began in 1878. In 1882, most of the town moved 1 1/2 miles to the north to be closer to the railroad.

We stopped for gas on the outskirts of town. Go figure there's another cache in the parking lot (GC4C32V)!

Continuing north on US-71 in Iowa, our next stop was for a virtual geocache that I never would have figured there's be one! Who knew there would be a lighthouse in IOWA of all places? Located on the northshore of Storm Lake, the Siebens Lighthouse (GCG72J) was built in 1992. This was about as close as I could get with the snow being up to my knees already.

Getting back to US-71 northbound, it's a two-lane highway. Having my back issue on day one and having to deal with that, throw in the single digit freezing temps, can I atleast have a day WITHOUT any new issues? Nope, it just ain't gonna happen!

As we're driving northbound at 60-65 MPH, the 18-wheeled farm trucks are hauling 60-65 MPH southbound. As each one passes by, the GeoJeep hood catches the 120 MPH wind through the front and causes a violent shutter of the hood. Well the frozen rubber latches on the sides of a Jeep hood just couldn't hold it any longer. Suddenly the driver side latch snapped and the corner of the hood just popped up about a foot! Scared the crap out of me!

I pulled over to take a look. Now I got nothing holding the drivers side of the hood secure. Now even at just 20-30 MPH and pulling way over onto the shoulder, the passing trucks just blow the hood up. I manage to drive a couple of miles down the road to this business entrance where I can get clear of traffic and try to figure out a solution. I can only mess with it for a minute or two before having to get back in the GeoJeep to thaw my fingers out before they fall off from frostbite! I got some basic hand tools and a package of zip ties. But with the brackets still in place, only the rubber piece broke off, there's nothing to run the zip tie through.

After about 30 minutes, someone from the shop pulled in and asked if I needed help. He let me pull inside the back of the building so that I could work on it without my fingers freezing. I did manage to get the top part of the bracket off. That allowed me to run the zip ties through the bolt holes and attach to the bottom bracket. GREAT!

Well not really. It didn't take long in those freezing temps for those plastic zip ties to become brittle and pop. After a couple of singles breaking, then two at a time, and even three! They wouldn't last at speed. So I had to continue to slow down and pull onto the shoulder every time an 18-wheeler passed by.

Nearly an hour later we finally made it up to the town of Spencer, Iowa. There they had a Jeep dealer. But they didn't stock any of those latches. Now what... There was a Menards around the corner, so I drove over there. Looking around for ideas, I found some tie wire used for holding rebar in place before pouring concrete. I bought it and a pair of wire cutters. But in trying to tighten it down the wire kept breaking. It was too thin.

Back inside I looked at other types of wire. I found another that was a little thicker and covered in a flexible plastic. So I buy that one. A little harder to snake through the holes, but I managed to tighten the hood down securely!

After that ordeal we needed a break and stopped over at Arby's for a bite to eat!

On the road again, we finally made it into Minnesota up US-71 northbound. We then pickup I-90 eastbound making up some lost time. The wind was really blowing the snow across the highway.

Upon arriving in Blue Earth, MN, there was one virtual geocache that we just couldn't pass up. I mean how can you pass up the huge Jolly Green Giant and Sprout! (GC628B)

Northbound on US-169, we stopped for another virtual geocache in Kasota, MN. Called Designated Trout Stream (GC938E), it was located along the highway in the Seven Mile Creek Park. The snow was pretty thick there and I put the GeoJeep in 4x4 mode to make sure I can maneuver around. Got the information we needed and got back into the warm GeoJeep.

Two more virtual geocaches, one for the original location of the Jolly Green Giant (GC9392) which was originally called the Minnesota Valley Canning Company. And the other was at a Veterans War Memorial (GCDF77).

Finally we made it to Minneapolis! But due to todays delays, we don't have much time. We check into the hotel and get unpacked quickly. Then off to Teresa's Mexican Restaurant where we are hosting our geocaching event "Texas Meets Minnesota in Mexico" (GC83PEG). It was a great time spent with and meeting the local geocachers. We had 18 cachers come out to welcome us!

Well that's it for Day #3 of our roadtrip. I get to spend the next the next two days in a conference room for some training meetings. CLFM will be out in the GeoJeep roaming all over the place finding more caches. Atleast I'll be staying warm!

Be sure to stop back by for the return trip back to Texas. We're not constrained by time for the return trip so who knows where we'll end up!

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2016-10-22: A Train Depot, an Old Fort, and Dinner With Other Geocachers!

Hello again and welcome back to another day in our Geocaching Adventures. Today we're heading down to San Angelo for a Geocaching Event hosted by a cacher named mommio. Though it started with brunch, we didn't make it in time for that. We grabbed a few caches on the way and then cached around San Angelo before meeting up with everyone at dinner. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Our first stop of course was the Starbucks in Odessa. Then on to Midland taking the TX158 exit east over to US-87 south towards San Angelo.

Our first Geocache was at the Water Valley Cemetery (GC13P18). The small community of Water Valley, TX dates back to the mid-1800's. The oldest marked graves date to the 1890's, though there are more than a dozen unknown grave sites.

A few miles down the road there's a historical marker and our next cache (GC1XXZ6). In 1911, the Texas Legislature passed a law calling for the establishment of state institutions for the treatment of tuberculosis. Across the street from the historical marker was the first such establishment. Opening in 1912, the Anti-Tuberculosis Colony No. 1 began with facilities for 57 patients on a 330 acre tract of land. The tuberculosis nursing school was founded here in 1915, and by 1961 had graduated more than 500 nurses. It was renamed the State Sanatorium in 1919. Because of the advances in medicine, it eventually closed in 1971 after treating 50,000 adults and 5,000 children.

Not too far away is the small town of Carlsbad, TX. The town began in 1907 and soon began growing. But between a three year drought followed by the lengthy depression, the population declined. Our next Geocache (GC1XY0W) brought us to this old bank building, probably built in the early 1920's. It would be interesting to see this structure restored. The walls seemed pretty sound. The roof and interior have fallen apart. But to leave the look of the exterior, upgrade and modernize the interior and you'd have a cool looking house.

We finally made it to mommio's house and the other cachers have already scattered about town to do some local Geocaching. We found the rather LARGE geocache on the front porch (GC1F8K8) before moving on around town ourselves.

The next few caches were a couple of fun simple gadget caches. Pinball Wizard (GC217N6) was one that we've found several of before. Think like pulling the plunger on a pinball machine to get the ball (cache) to shoot out. That was followed by Puff the Magic Dragon (GC214PD) where you had to blow into a tube to get the cache to pop out the top. Three Blind Mice (GC6Q2Q5) was up next followed by Twist and Shout (GC33RDA).

From there we drove over to The Cowboy (GC4RW35). It was a statue honoring the hard working ranchers in West Texas. We never did find the cache. Turns out it was missing.

We also spotted these wonderful murals on the side of a building highlighting early public transportation in San Angelo.

I finally decided to go over to get the cache located at the San Angelo Visitors Bureau (GC101N0). I figured while there we could also find out some of the more interesting and historical places in town. There we picked up some information on the train depot and the old fort. Since the train depot was closest, we headed over there first.

Train service first arrived in San Angelo in 1888 by the Gulf & Colorado Railroad, which was soon after purchased by the Santa Fe Railroad. But in 1900, the Kansas City, Mexico, & Orient Railroad also built a line through San Angelo. The depot here is the KCM&O depot built in 1910 and serves today as the Railroad Museum.
With the two competing railroads, San Angelo became the most important sheep, goat, and cattle shipping station in the country. The Santa Fe Railroad Company bought the KCM&O in 1928 after the oil boom. But in the 1950's passenger rail service began to dry up with the construction of new roads and highways. And on June 20, 1965, the last train departed from the depot.

After touring the train depot and viewing all the displays, we drove over to Fort Concho. The center of a line of forts extending from the northeastern border of Texas to El Paso, Fort Concho was also the northern point of southern chain of forts extending to the Rio Grande. Established in 1867 (at the junction of the Butterfield Trail, Goodnight Trail, and the road to San Antonio) by 4th Calvary under Captain George G. Huntt to protect the frontier.

By March 1, 1870, the fort buildings were a commissary and quartermaster storehouse, hospital, five officers quarters, a magazine and two barracks; all built of sandstone. On June 20, 1889, the fort was abandoned and the property passed into private ownership.

We toured through all the restored buildings and looked at the displays. One of the officers quarters was even made into a telephone museum where they had just about every type of phone ever made! There were also two caches there, well supposed to be two caches there. We found one (GC46FQX) but not the other (GCKX8T).

By now it was time to meet up with the group at the restaurant for dinner and talk of our Geocaching tales of the day. We had a good time meeting a lot of new cachers as well as seeing some familiar faces from other events.

There's a lot more to see around San Angelo, but as usual they'll have to wait another day. We just need to retire early! Until next time, see you back here or out on the caching trails.

2015-06-14: Another Weekend Road Trip to South Carolina

This weekend was another road trip up to South Carolina to pickup Candy's grandson at "South of the Border", to spend the summer with us. But we also had a couple of other activities yesterday to attend to before leaving which made for a busy weekend.

Heading out early yesterday morning over to Melbourne Beach, FL, Candy had an appointment there. While she was at her appointment, I decided to go Geocaching (of course) down this trail a few blocks south. Maritime Hammock was about a three mile loop trail and I managed to find two caches there.

After the hike, it was back to pickup Candy and quickly drive back to Orlando. There was the Geocaching event at the Greek Flame Taverna of which I was the host to attend to. However with this last minute trip up to South Carolina, we weren't going to able to stay long. I also made arrangements with cacher friends QQnonrev to be there for the start just in case we were late getting over from Melbourne Beach. Which was the case. We arrived late, greeted everyone, a quick lunch, and we were out the door early too heading northbound.

I knew it was going to be tight on time, however when making these trips you just have to make an occasional stop to break up the time. Plus now that we're trying to complete our Geocaching counties map, there were several along the way to get.

Our first stop was at the same exit for both Liberty and Mcintosh Counties. One stop, two caches and two counties! One more county stop in Georgia and another in South Carolina, we continued up to Dillion, SC and checked into the hotel for the night.

This morning Candy and I drove up to the next exit, at the famous "South of the Border" Mexican themed tourist trap on the border of North and South Carolina's. We managed to find two geocaches there before her grandson showed up with his father at the rendezvous location.

Heading south now back to Orlando, we stopped two more times in South Carolina to find ordinary caches in two new counties. The next stop however was a bit more interesting! A virtual Geocache called Area 51-SC, located in Bowman, SC. Not sure of the story behind this place, but it on the side of this house and I think the owner just went crazy with his utility shed building a UFO Welcome Center! The things you find while Geocaching!

On the way to another cache to pickup a new county, we were driving down this rural road and passed by this house with some really cool metal fabricated yard art. We just had to stop and take some pictures!

Another weekend and another road trip behind us. I guess this was a practice run for our summer vacation which begins next week. I hope you'll join us.

2015-03-28: An Event and Geocaching Around Lake County

Today was a Geocaching event day hosted by QQnonrev up at the new Lake Hiawatha Preserve in Clermont, FL. It started at 7:30 in the morning, so we were a little late in arriving and missed out on the group photo below. The cachers who attended were: of course the hosts QQnonrev, YankaBucs & MsYB, CoalCracker7, TeamFelixG, RD69, MrsL10, TT23, RAHNNERGOTHUC, kricklick, victorthevmandawson1, TheLF, stephers88, framptoncomesalive, TomToad, DirtyD13, moparots, Turfgator, Pen4, and GeoCharmer81. Had a good time there chatting with some old friends and meeting a couple new ones. And found a few caches in the park also.

After we left there, we ended up heading south picking up random Geocaches. Our total finds for the day was 22. Tomorrow we head back up to the ONF for another hike with a few friends we saw this morning.

2015-01-17: Cacheapalooza 9 Geocaching and Hiking in Jonathan Dickinson State Park

Today was the day for Cacheapalooza 9, a huge Mega event located in South Florida at the Jonathan Dickinson State Park. A Mega event means that more than 500 geocachers have to log their attended in order to qualify. I think this is my 3rd trip done to a Cacheapalooza and Candy's first.

Jonathan Dickinson State Park is an 18 square mile park located just south of Stuart, FL in Martin County. It contains miles of hiking and biking trails, canoe and kayaking opportunities, and more.

They day started out fairly cool and warmed up slightly as we began hiking. We checked in, signed the log book, and looked around at the crowd to see if any of our caching friends were here. We saw some of their cars in the parking lot but not at the pavilion. They must be out already on the trails.

So Candy and I selected one of the many trails and began hiking through the scrub. Starting out at the pavilion, we headed north along the Kitching Creek Trail to the Connecting Trail finding caches along the way. That trail takes you over to the Red Loop Trail.

After hiking up the Red Trail for a little bit, I turned west on the Ocean to Lake Trail when I should have turned east. But I didn't have a trail map and I couldn't remember which way I had taken on previous visits. Anyway, we continue finding caches, crossed over Kitching Creek and turned left again on the multi-use trail headed south. This should take us back near the pavilion and the parking lot, right? Hmmm

Continuing south and grabbing caches, I noticed on my GPS that the caches started curving to the west past and away from the pavilion. Looking at the satellite view, there looked to be campsite trail that might cross back over the creek so we could return to the pavilion. Well the photo below shows what we found at the end of the trail. There was no bridge to cross over to the other side.

So it was either continue southwest and loop WAY around the bottom and then back north OR backtrack the way we came. We chose the shorter backtrack route! After six miles of hiking, we finally made it back to the pavilion. Saw a couple of friends and chatted for a little bit. Then we drove into town and found a Chili's to grab some food, drink, and relax a while before the long drive back up to Orlando.

Another great day of adventure! See ya next time...

2014-12-13: Two Events and Some Random Caches

Because of today's date 12-13-2014, it was a day for Geocaching events where cachers get together and share stories. Our first event was only a mile away from home. It started at 10 am and we gathered for 11 minutes. Therefore it was called: 10-11-12-13-14! So after quick hello's and a little cit chat, we disbursed.

Some of us headed down to Winter Haven, FL for the next Brunch Time event. Along the way, we stopped to grab a couple of other caches too. When we arrived at the restaurant where the next event was being held, it was standing room only! So another few quick greetings and off we went down the road.

A couple more caches later and eventually we found one at Sample Park on the shores of Lake Hamilton. After finding the cache we strolled down by the lake to enjoy the view.

The next cache took us south to Lake Wales and then east on FL-60 over to the Flaming Arrow Scout Reservation. Not a really big day, but a good day seeing some caching friends and exploring some new areas around.